Lafayette: Car fire at BART station spreads to four other vehicles

A fire under the hood of a car parked at the Lafayette BART station on Tuesday spread to surrounding cars, destroying five vehicles.

Fire investigators said that an older model Lexus caught on fire around 2 p.m., and the flames quickly spread to nearby cars. No one was injured, but four of the vehicles have been completely destroyed and one severely damaged.

An investigation into what caused the Lexus to catch on fire is ongoing, but Contra Costa Fire Marshall Robert Marshall said the incident was not suspicious in nature and may have been caused by a leak in a fuel line.

"Typically we see this on cars that have just been worked on or those that have an issue, but haven't been serviced yet," he said.

To make matters worse, fire officials were not able to contact car owners to let them know about the fire, although BART police were stationed at the lot to explain what happened to returning commuters.